Dave-Co wrote:
I will pipe in about axles and stay away I mean sway away. I am no fan of sway away dealing with them since the mid 1970s in off road racing. I know personally a couple of people that have worked there for well over 20 years. I have been told by them that sway away is using and doing the proper job these days verses old. That company would for years use BS material and claim and price our torsion bars as 300M for our desert race cars and being the only place for 20 years or longer that was the only place to buy axles and torsion bars for Vw desert cars we bought them and broke them believing they were 300M bars and axles when in truth the bottom rate bars and axles they sold were better than there quote good stuff. I have always lived by the view of sway away if you have not broken one in several outings with there stuff you got lucky and got a good set and stay with it. As a example my 5-1600 baja bug has 20 year old torsion bars in the rear, I would not put a new set in and hope the new set was heat treated right and would not snap when these have proven to last. I have 3 pilots with sway away axles on them that are still going strong, meaning no problems yet that my kids drive harder threw big stuff than most. I have made axles, about 12 pairs and have had no problems on any of them yet, and most have a heck of a lot of riding on them. I believe Marv will make axles that will last, but to change axles just because they are sway away on your pilot is a judgment call on your part. As much as I think Marv will make a great set of axles I cant justify the expense to change them from what I am using that has not given me a problem or a problem to the pilots I have made long travel that are also not losing axles. On new long travel pilots that I would do in the future I would consider using Marvs axles over sway aways, but like I said the axles I make from stock axles have been holding up just fine also. If he would have hit me with this a couple of months ago I would have went his way and I still would if money comes my way on a few sets. Sway away axles to fit standard ATV racing long travel pilots is 17 1/8 from snap ring to snap ring groove which the inner snap ring groove is a bit shallow on new sway away axles that I have used. I take new axles and cut the snap ring grove a bit deeper on my band saw. Cruz had the snap ring come off the inner cv the first night he took his home and I also had my first long travel pilot with new axles have the snap ring come off just moving it around in the garage. All new axles I cut the groove deeper, but the stock axles have no such issues
The group buy is not specifically so people can buy new axles and swap out with their ATV Racing axles the buy is for anybody that wants axles, whether it be for a spare, future or current long travel Pilot builds.
I would be buying a set for spares for my LT Pilot since I have no confidence in the ATV Racing axles if I had the spare set of the 4x4 tuff axles in my shop and was to tear down the current axles with the ATVR axles to service the CV's then yeah I would swap the axles out while it was all apart and the ATVR axles would then become the spares.
400 bux for a set of axles is nothing when you just drove 2500 miles and break one lol being an hr from home and breaking one is no big deal, break out the quad finish the trip fix it after the trip, break one the first week into a 6 week trip I will be wrenching rather than watching TV in the RV
Thanks for the info on sway a way, I know sway a way is a big name that's been around for a long time like ATV Racing, I have no clue on the quality and any of their short comings, no reason why we should be bound to ATVR and sway a way when their is a proven alternative...
My dad was a tool and die maker I remember him telling me horror stories about heat treatment and quality of materials, I witnessed the heat treatment thing personally when I helped him change 2nd gear in his 1955 tractor, the gear broke so we split the tractor removed the gear, he took it to work and duplicated the gear then had the heat treatment department treat it, we installed he hooked the plow to it and plowed for about 300' and the gear snapped again so we had to do the whole process over again because they screwed it up in heat treatment, 30 years later the 2nd gear he made is still working fine.